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Struggle in Rossport offers the 'threat of a good example' to all of us

The People, United

The long running struggle in Erris (Rossport) against Shell's attempt to impose an experimental gas pipeline on the local community has erupted in recent days with repeated local direct actions against the compound Shell are trying to construct. Meanwhile the state, at the behest of Shell, continues to press vindictive prosecutions against local activists. Back in March retired school teacher Maura Harrington for jailed for 30 days, today the state returned for another pound of flesh and she was sentenced to another 7-10 days in Mountjoy prison. At very short notice over 20 activists from Dublin Shell to Sea gathered at the prison gates and showed their outrage by blocking the entrance of the prison van containing Maura in to Mountjoy for about twenty minutes.

Related Links outside of Indymedia.ie
The website of Shell-to-Sea - CorribSOS.com
Keep the pressure up: Contact ALL TDs, Senators, and MEPs in Ireland and let them know how you feel about Shell in Rossport - Contact.ie

The vendictive decision to jail Maura comes at a very significant time when there are growing attacks on Irish workers coming out of the crisis in capitalism. We are told that the billions being spent bailing out the banks has to come out if our pockets and from our health and education services yet the state is giving Shell & Statoil hundreds of billions worth of gas and oil deposits off the west coast without a cent in royalties. (Click here for more details)

The people of Erris have been resisting this project for almost a decade now and have received support and solidarity from all across Ireland and beyond. The Irish state must be increasingly worried by the example their resistance sets to the working class across the island. If a few dozen people in an isolated region of Mayo can defy everything the state can throw at them over a decade (the magnitude of which is illustrated by a Gardai bill totaling 50% of that spent policing gangland shootings in Dublin) then how could the state hope to deal with the hundreds of thousands of workers in Ireland if we choose to stand together and declare 'enough'.

Tonight's blockade was symbolic of the power of resistance, that we can stand together and choose to resist. Shell and the Irish state have spent tens of millions of euro trying to beat the campaign into the ground. They have tried to bribe locals, they have beaten them, they have jailed them and they have wined and dined journalists by the dozen to ensure they get the right 'spin'. But despite all this it's not over yet. And now times have changed, the Celtic Tiger is dead. It's a good time to get involved (or re-involved) in the solidarity groups all over the country and to help make sure the people of Erris are not fighting alone. It's become increasingly clear that this fight is one for all of us.

After about twenty minutes a force of 15 or so Gardai emerged from the police station beside the prison and attacked the protest. With the use of force they managed to clear the road after a couple of minutes, pushing and dragging the protesters away from the van leaving several with bruises.

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Comments (37 of 37)

Shell and the state team up once again
Solidarity demo tonight outside Mountjoy from 9.30pm
Information has just arrived in that Maura Harrington is being taken to Mountjoy prison tonight.
Should be arriving around 9.30
Several other court cases were up in court today also.
Gardai are saying Maura is going to be brought directly to prison for not paying the fines from her last case (€3000)

It was great to see such a committed group turning out on such a miserable evening and at such short notice. I was there - the atmosphere was great. A passing-by woman of between 60 and 70 stopped for a moment and told two of us she was from near Rossport. She said, the people around there fought for their land in the time of Michael Davitt and the Land League and their rights to the land are being taken away again. The chant ran "Whose cops? Shell's cops", sad but true. Jinx Lennon played at the gig last night organised by AFrI (w Christy Moore and many others) - he has written a song about it called the Conquistadors of Mayo, it is bleedin brilliant!

Maura Harrington saw us and recognised individual faces - some people were even communicating with her in sign language - I overheard people saying she was telling them, I am in for 14 days. She looked delighted with the solidarity. Don't know who organised this but you did a brilliant job.

"The vendictive decision to jail Maura comes at a very significant time when there are growing attacks on Irish workers coming out of the crisis in capitalism"

Do you think there is a link between the evils of capitalism and my back pain? Seriously, get a grip.

"Tonight's blockade was symbolic of the power of resistance that we can stand together and choose to resist”

It was the same group of people you stood outside Mountjoy with the last time, and the time before that; in fact, it is the same group of people you drink with, hang out with and protest with on a weekly basis. Power of resistance my eye. It is a group of mates out socialising. An anarchist - republican get together.

A great job to all those involved in showing that yes, we won't take this sitting down, and letting Maura know once more that there is solidarity with her arrest. Keeping up the pressure and the fighting spirit!

Interesting to see the same old trolling that emerges each time the Erris struggle springs to life, its quite well targeted, designed to demoralise and disempower those who might be inclined to get involved / re-involved. I'm rather amused by the attempt to make me the story but eeek is wrong, only one of my regular drinking buddies was present and I'm pretty sure that was one of his first Shell to Sea protests. I do know a good percentage of the rest all right but that is what you'd expect from something advertised with a few hours notice which was bound to reach (never mind mobilise) those who have had previous and prolonged involvement in the struggle and hence the motivation to get down there on a wet and windy night while others stayed at home.

If there is a serious point here it is a recognition of what I refer to in the report, the success that Shell has had in wearing the campaign down over a decade. The millions spent in PR sowing confusion and suspicion have of course had an impact even if so many of the stories are bizarre and contradictory. But as I suggest things have changed and the struggle has a much greater relevance outside of Erris then it did this time last year, or five years ago. It's a context in which you can nurse old gripes or choose to put them aside and get back on your feet. In fact its a context in which we have to do just that, and not just in relation to Shell to Sea, or get rolled over.

"Dublin activists block the car carrying Maura Harrington into Mountjoy where she is starting a 14 day sentence for opposing shell"

What was the intention here? Stop the car and help Maura escape? Bundle her on to the back of your bike and spin off down the North Circular Road? Keep her in a safe house? Use her as the bargaining card to re-negotiate the giveaway of our natural resources?

Seriously, I support the campaign and have a huge amount of respect for the Dublin people involved and the rossport community. I also think it is terrible that Maura has been jailed. But, does this type of direct action have to be used for every dimension of the campaign? What does it achieve? Might it not be better to diversify tactics in order to build mass popular national support?

If the ultimate objective of the campaign is to take the natural resources into public ownership then it is absolutely necessary to think rationally and seriously about how this can actually happen. Building mass popular support is an absolute pre-condition to do this. But, you don’t build mass popular support by fighting with cops outside Mountjoy. It just reinforces the popular perception that the campaign is controlled by a group of thugs (which it is not).

I am no longer involved in the campaign (but would get involved if there was a national structure that is not opposed to some element of formalised hierarchy) so it is not my place to tell others what to do. But, the fact that there are local and European elections in two weeks time, coupled with the economic crisis, means it is a prime opportunity to make this a national concern. So, might it be an idea to try make the Corrib Gas Project an election issue (although it is probably too late)? The Greens are in dire straits and likely to renegotiate the programme for government after June 5th. Might a bit of pressure force them to make the Corrib gas project one of their policy demands?

I am not saying this is the only approach that ought to be taken, but surely, at this stage, the campaign should be using all the strategic tools available to them, and move beyond solidarity protests? The bigger issue of our natural resources being given away for free is far more important, and much more likely to win national support.

"This approach of one law for community, another law for the multinationals may be based on an assumption that this project is somehow in the national interest. In fact, Corrib will represent a net loss to the exchequer of many billions of euro,”

I am absolutely convinced that if a rational public dialogue took place on this issue, and the facts were put forward on Corrib, then the vast majority of Irish people would support public ownership. If a real policy plan was drawn up on how a state enterprise could extract and distribute the gas, how it would support employment, build a national system of resource-energy innovation and link up with existing plans for a 'smart economy' we would have more political clout. This is a real possibility and perfectly rational.

It is this type of rational reasoning that will win the argument on Corrib not wrestling with cops outside mountjoy or calling for an end to capitalism. This may be a long term objective for some groups involved in S2S, but if the issue-specific campaign of bringing Corrib into public ownership is to succeed then it needs to construct a different (and more achievable) public discourse, that can win mass popular support.

I don't think anybody thought that blockading the gates for 20 minutes would end the Corrib Gas rippoff.
I think rather it was a show of solidarity.

We need to engage the public in thinking more of where their energy (electricity, and direct gas heat in cooking and central heating) and their employer's energy comes from, and try to get as many of them thinking about what may lie ahead in the near future, and whether they want to keep daydreaming a la Celtic Tiger (RIP) or wake up and start to secure things for their future and their kids future.

This gas field, if we don't give it away can provide some decent revenue for the state, to fund hospitals, schools, and yes even cops, who would be better employed chasing down corrupt politicians and armed gangs.

This country needs to prepare itself for issues of energy security. If we allow Shell to export the gas to the highest bidder, while we have to import gas from abroad, we are opening ourselves up to be exploited, held to ransom by our suppliers, and paying through the nose, and worrying about keeping a supply whenever something kicks off in some country along the pipeline route.

The time is quite ripe now to start to wake people up to the reality, that we all have to pull together and not expect it to somehow work out alright in the end, like an episode of some TV show they've been watching while multinationals robbed us blind with the help of our politicians.

AR I don't think the issue here is that anyone thinks this symbolic action is any more than that. Your silly 'escape plan' orientated opening remarks reduce your argument as we both know this was not what the protest was about.

The idea that a campaign around Shell's seizure of the revenue from the natural resources is hardly a new one, its been one of the main planks of the campaign all along. And the idea that we'd like to see some rational public discussion ('discourse') is nether new nor something that has not been repeatedly pushed and attempted by those involved. Indeed the press release you point to quoting someone was was there last night suggests that there is no real contradiction between such protests and looking for such discussion.

The point your trying to make appears to be that the sight of people standing in the way of the prison van and being forcibly removed by the Gardai somehow prevents this happening. It's not clear how this is the case, after all from September 2008 to February 2009 there were no stand offs of any description yet this rational discussion somehow failed to break out. And there have been similar quiet periods most years as well as the five year period before the jailing of the Rossport 5. It's hard to believe it was about to happen yesterday or today but that last nights events stopped it. A better explanation of this failure may be the one offered in the original article, that Shell have spent millions on PR (and of course a substantial part of the media is owned by O'Reilly whose other companies are involved in the gas/oil exploration business themselves). The challenge is how to overcome this and it is a challenge that is considerably broader than trying to blame those who have stuck with the struggle.

Your accusuation that I am 'blaming' those who have 'stuck with the struggle' is absolute nonsense and makes your post unworthy of a response.

Tim,

I accept that it was a show of solidarity and I agree with most things you say, particularly the issue of timing. Now is a perfect time to push the boundaries of what the state can achieve. The question still remains; what are the best 'means' to achieve the objectives you outline. It is not a rhetorical anti-state, ant-capitalist rhetoric but a reasoned policy proposal that people can genuinely sign up to.

The issue of energy security is a perfect starting point. It also fits well with the growing policy consensus on 'green' capitalism within government. Thus, if the Greens could push this as a policy demand then a whole new space would open up for a national campaign to take Corrib into public ownership. But, it would be even more legitimate if a concrete plan was drawn up on how to achieve this.

Democracy is only a pretence in Ireland we are governed by a junta of crooks who are still in power and have full controll over all aspects of our society.
Both Tara and Shell to Sea protesters have got to accept that democracy in Ireland is non existant. To claim human rights or fair play from government will only fall on deaf ears and to seek justice in the EU takes a long time. A lot of damage will be done by the time any judgment can be made. Fianna Fail know that whatever fines or penalties that can be served on Ireland will have to be met not by them, but by the taxpayer,
Judge Coughlan must not influenced by Fianna Fail in the Tara trials(hopefully), Judge devins on the other hand is. The top gardai are appointed by Fianna Fail and will commit crimes on their behalf. Most state bodies have been infiltrated by Fianna Fail cronies as is the bulk of the media. The greens are fully willing to help them in their crimes.
ALL PROTESTERS SHOULD DO WHATEVER THEY CAN TO DISRUPT THESE CROOKS IN THEIR ELECTION CAMPAIGNS.
Maura Harington has been re jailed for 14 days and can expect more jail time just like Michael Davitt she will be made to suffer for her people. She has full love and respect by all S"S supporters. HER SPIRIT WILL NOT BE BROKEN BY TRAITORS.
And these scum call themselves the nationalist party.

A.R. I suggest you re-read your second to fifth paragraph and in particular focus in on the sentences "But, you don’t build mass popular support by fighting with cops outside Mountjoy. It just reinforces the popular perception that the campaign is controlled by a group of thugs (which it is not)."

Whatever your intention was I don't think my summary was unfair given the contents of those paragraphs. Certainly your outrage is misplaced. But I'm glad to hear that I misread your intention and invite you to respond to the actual points made.

shell / topaz are in charge of the main stage in Galway for the coming ocean race they have donated there murderous money all of 100,000 to it as a good will PR stunt showing how they really care and understand SORT OUT A PROTEST ASAP to show the powers that be!!!! keep the fight going the light will shine through

AR asks "But, does this type of direct action have to be used for every dimension of the campaign? "

In the last few years I have seen every sort of protest and publicity stunt described as 'direct action'. Sadly, very few were. DA has nothing to do with whether a protest is polite or aggressive, legal or illegal, militant or passive.

Indirect action is where you try to get someone else to do things for you (by putting pressure on TDs, signing petitions, voting in elections and so on). One might describe it as the politics of dependency, depending on someone else to sort things out.

Direct action is where people collectively take action themselves, action which can achieve some or all of the results they want. (strikes, occupations like Visteon, mass non-payment of water or bin taxes, etc.).

In Rossport it has meant things like stopping work on the site, blocking trucks, removal of fencing.

But a protest outside a prison is just that, a protest. It sought to show some support for Maura Harrington and to get a bit more publicity for the campaign against Shell's plans. All good stuff, but it is really stretching the meaning of the concept to call it DA.

I agree with your points, and my use of the term direct action is quite sloppy so point taken. I suppose what I am trying to say is that real direct action, as is being taken in Rossport is extremely valuable and neccessary. But, wrestling with cops outside mountjoy for little or no reason is futile. Arguably, it undermines the real use of disciplined direct action as is being taken in Mayo. I just dont see the point. All you are doing is asking to be arrested, and for what? Nothing.

But, the bigger point I am making is the need to adopt a wide variety of tactics to achieve the overall objective of putting Corrib gas into public ownership. If using the elections to make this point then so be it. If it requires lobbying then why not, just make sure you have a convincing policy proposal. If it requires tearing down a fence in the compound, all good.

But, only through mobilising mass popular support and using the apparatus of the state (whether legal or industrial) will this campaign be won. Corrib enterprise inc, owned by the Irish people. It will require legislation, and most definately public money (via taxation) channelled through a government office, most likely the department of enterprise. So, why not draw up the policy-legislative proposal for them?

A.R., your comment "using the apparatus of the state (whether legal or industrial) will this campaign be won." I will accept your argument if you could suggest concrete examples of state apparatus which would be useful and how? State apparatus is "apparatus" for a reason, "to protect the individual and his/her property" , sadly enough "property" not the individual is the foundation of "justice" apparatus.

"It will require legislation, and most definately public money (via taxation) channelled through a government office" Please refer to Irish Constitution it is one of the most aspiring, its precedents have made history and relatively liberal comparing to other members of the common law system. Morever, its articles already provide for our argument. This is the only "state apparatus" may be used to protect the resources of the country which is violated for this give away in the first place. I am sorry but, your logic is puzzling.

"So, why not draw up the policy-legislative proposal for them?" as asked above.

"I will accept your argument if you could suggest concrete examples of state apparatus which would be useful and how?"
I'm not sure where to begin on this one but here goes; The two main areas are benefit in kind (health, education and transport etc) and the minimisation of risk through income-cash transfers (pension, job seekers benefit etc).

1. Education
Public financing of education at primary, secondary and tertiary education (for the moment) could not occur without a central administrative body; the state.

2. Healthcare
Public financing and delivery of healthcare exists in practically every country in the western world. Irelands move toward market coordination has been a catastrophe and requires state intervention in either the form of a) a universal health insurance scheme or b) a NHS style system.

3. Transport
The public subsidies provided to CIE and Dublin Bus is miniscule in comparison to other EU countries but without this state involvement, Irelands transport system would be almost 100 per cent car dependent.

4. Pensions
The minimisation of elder age risk through the provision of publically provided and financed state pensions keep an awful lot of people out of poverty.

5. Job seekers benefit
The minimisation of labour market risk through the provision of cash transfers in Ireland is a massive security against no income in all welfare states. Even Ireland’s residual system protects single people against poverty.

6. Disability Benefit
The minimisation of risk through this cash transfer is another useful cash transfer that many of the most vulnerable in society could not live without.

7. Housing
The provision of social housing is minimal in Ireland but a central policy function of centralised public bodies like the state.

8. Redistributing wealth through taxation
A centralised taxation system is technically designed to redistribute wealth in society. Ireland does it poorly but an essential apparatus of the state.
___________

These are just 8 concrete examples of the state apparatus that benefit society. Each can be massively critiqued, but the criticism is usually about the lack of state activity rather than actual state involvement itself.

No matter what society you live in, whether anarchist or social democratic, an administrative body that institutionalises decision making is inevitable. Presently we have a central state governed by a legislature (elected by the people, whether you like it or not) and overseen by a judicary. It is far from ideal, and in the context of winning this campaign, reflections on a post state-capitalist world (no matter how enjoyable) are futile. They will not bring Corrib into pubic ownership. A multi faceted political strategy is needed, and this inevitably involves the state.

It is absolutely necessary to distinguish between the political objectives of anarchism and the issue-specific Corrib Gas campaign. If the objectives of the former determine the strategy of the latter the campaign has lost already.

A.R. we have a saying in our movement - that has been on the roll for over 70 years with nvda and with grassroots direct solidarity with the poor...."If they come for the innocent without stepping over your body, cursed be your religion (or social theory or ideological brand) and your life!" many thanx to those who made the state step a little higher at Mountjoy as it was imprisoning Maura.

Your proposals are the same ones that led the mass anti-war feeling in Ireland into a dead end...up the right channels, milk the war/Rossport etc etc for media profile lifting and brand enhancement, for electoral ambitions (see Green Party as the logical conclusion to that strategy). No matter how rrrrrrevolutionary your rhetoric it is a liberal position....appeals to power to do the right thing etc etc.

As Phil Berrigan reflected "without community there is no sustained resistance!"...whether that community be faithbased, local under threat or a drinking circle in Dublin...all power to it...elbow and the rest of the body.

Cynicism remains the 5th. column of the establishment....well done to the folks at Mountjoy for an authentic and human response in the face of so much power and injustice

It seems a little odd that so much time is given to discussing tactics. Many seem happy to criticise a whole variety of tactics that are legitimised by their open acceptance in the relevant community, ie. Rossport.

And yet at the same time many of the comments posted here seem to suggest the issue at hand is ownership of the gas (one example "If the ultimate objective of the campaign is to take the natural resources into public ownership" - AR). Is it? Well, ownership of natural resources has been an issue since the change in law nearly 2 decades ago. And I haven't heard any discussion of that til the more recent Corrib issue arose. Surely ownership is a minor point in THIS campaign whose focus is the threat to a particular community. Trying to tag on the bigger 'campaign' to an already under siege community is a bit pathetic as if they were somehow more responsible for dealing with the it just because they're at the forefront of it (and not by their choice).

The good folk up in Rossport, for all their hard work, deserve not to have their campaign manipulated by outsiders with their own agendas and separate campaigns.

I appreciate your comments but I think you may be slightly mis interpreting what I am getting at. You wrote "no matter how rrrrrrevolutionary your rhetoric it is a liberal position....appeals to power to do the right thing etc etc".

I am not all that concerned about whether my position is liberal, anarchist or socialist. I am talking about the need for political strategy. A poltiical strategy tailored to winning this particular campaign, and I maintain that to win it, we need to diversify. This includes the use of disciplined direct action and other tactics such as legislative reform, lobbying the Greens to use it as a deal breaker in the renegotiation of government and building mass popular support. As an anarchist these strategies may make you feel uncomfortable, but thats not a rational reason to dismiss them.

Also, using the media is not a strategy for brand enhancement but communicative power. Centralised power exists and it is going nowhere. Building a counter movement of communicative power is not appealing to the authorities to do the right thing but pushing them to the edge of a cliff so that they have no other option. Again though, this requires separating your personal objectives of anarchism from the common good of this campaign.

Taking politics seriously, and taking this campaign seriously neccesitates a reflection on political strategy. Without it we are driving in the dark. But, it does seem disingenous (as someone mentione dabove) to have this discussion without active participation by those active in Rossport and Dublin. But, I think it is an extremely important discussion to be had.

It would be wonderful to see them all over the country to raise awareness among the population who are kept in the dark by the triangle of control and deciet carved by O'Reilly, O'Brien and Monstrous Montrose.

Thankfully those on trumped up charges,some of whom were jailed in Cloverhill for refusing to accept bail conditions , recieved justice last week .All charges withdrawn dismissed or dismissed on merit..